


What It Means To Be Human

by AbsolutelyGarbage



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Angst, Complete, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-27
Updated: 2014-01-27
Packaged: 2018-01-10 05:05:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1155442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AbsolutelyGarbage/pseuds/AbsolutelyGarbage
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Most people were like her, weak, cowardly, rotten to the core.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What It Means To Be Human

**Author's Note:**

> episode 23 from Annie’s point of view. I made it Maruani because I ship it hella hard. Sads ahoy, and a shit ton of flashbacks.

_"that’s my girl"_

_Her lungs burned from lack of breath and her muscles were heavy with fatigue. She paused a moment to catch her breath, her father noticed._

_"What are you doing? No breaks, Annie" It was to protect her, she knew that. She loved her father and so she lunged at the target again._

Annie woke up in her cot feeling exhausted, her muscles still had a ghost soreness as if the dream had been real. Or perhaps it had come from her escapades the night before.

Hiding things in the Military Police was easier than in her training days. Almost no one cared if she snuck off and if she slept in she was hardly ever the only one and even if she was her comrades assumed it was out of laziness.

Things had been different in the 104. Annie could still sneak off at times to rest after a late night but sometimes her fellow trainees would catch her. Sometimes Reiner stopped her to lecture her, which was rich considering he was no more a soldier than her, and sometimes it was someone else.

_"Annie!" The voice came from behind her. It was low and airy, a whisper as not to alert the attention of their superiors. She figured it was Reiner at first but he didn’t have this much tact. Bertholdt was her next guess but he usually didn’t feel the need to stop her from sneaking off._

_"Annie, hey, are you ok?" letting out a small huff the blonde turned to face the offending voice. It was the freckled kid, the one who usually hung around Jean and Dazz and all the others who seemed not his type. His name was Mark, or something. Annie didn’t feel the need to know the names of the people who she would one day kill._

_"Hand to hand combat isn’t worth my time" she spoke honestly in a low monotone, brushing her hair from her face. A kind of twitch she had developed. Marco frowned and she prepared for another lecture, he was one of those stupidly serious people._

_"You’ve sneaked away every day this week, at dinner too. Do you want to talk about it?" talk about it? That took Annie by surprise, she looked up at his genuine expression, concern. It was bad enough she had to deal with people trying to control her she didn’t need anyone worrying over her._

_"I’m not broken and I don’t need fixed" she muttered more to herself than to the wide brown eyes she couldn’t shake off her mind. He didn’t follow her to the barracks._

Annie snapped to attention as one of her superiors entered the hallway, giving him a hasty salute. She hadn’t paid attention to Marlow and Hitch’s argument, it was a regular occurrence and she really couldn’t care less.

She didn’t like Marlow and if she was completely honest with herself it wasn’t because he made her feel inadequate as a person. Most people were like her, weak, cowardly, rotten to the core. It was because he reminded her of someone else.

Someone else who believed he could fix the world, with wide set shoulders and a bad haircut, even their names sounded familiar. It was like being punched in the gut every time she saw him or heard him speak so she learned to tune him out.

Would he be like this? Annie wondered. Would he be bitter, ranting against their superiors and calling his comrades trash? No, even if he had lived to join the Military Police, this was one place in which they differed. Marco was nothing like Marlow, Annie decided.

_"Annie!" the blonde trainee had since grown used to the sound of Marco’s urgent whispers. His concern was almost as annoying as Reiner’s chastising. She didn’t want to care about anyone, and on top of that he had woken her up._

_"What?" she asked in a groggy and unamused tone._

_"Here" Marco gave her a smile and bread and she looked at him, a little confused. Marco laughed as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Why would he not share his rations with a girl he barely knew who had also skipped most of training that day? Annie couldn’t even begin to comprehend how his mind worked._

_"Take it, you missed dinner. I’m sorry that’s all I could get" apologizing, he was apologizing for not giving her more of his food. She furrowed her brow at the bread in her palm as if it held the answers. After a moment she muttered a thank you but Marco was gone._

This plan was insane. Too insane to be Armin’s. He was brilliant, the only reason they made it out of that store room alive, the main reason why their plan to fell wall Rose failed. This plan to trick the military police and escape with Eren had too many holes in it.

It was a fake, he was trying to lure her away. They probably at least suspected her as a titan shifter at this point. So why was she going along with it. Why was she following after her former comrade anyway.

"You’re a good person Annie" Oh, of course, that’s why. That voice, those eyes. Why was this boy still haunting her even after he was dead?

_The words came abruptly from the boy on the ground. Annie had shown up to hand-to-hand that day only to be challenged by Marco. It was easy enough to knock him down and take the knife. She’d been rough as always so why was he calling her a good person now?_

_"You really are an idiot" she said as he hoisted himself up. Marco laughed shaking his head. She was really starting to hate that laugh. It made her feel happy, at peace, and incredibly guilty._

_"I’m an idiot and you’re a good person" he insisted "You try really hard to hide it, I guess because you think it makes you weak"_

_"But you’re genuinely good. That’s why even though you don’t find this training to be worth anything, you helped me anyway. And Eren, too. There’s no benefit for you to train with us, not with how strong you are and not with our main enemies being titans. But you did it anyway"_

_Annie hadn’t noticed it before. He was right. Well mostly, anyway, she was still a rotten human being. If she could even be called one at this point. But he was right that she had no reason to train with them or take it seriously._

_"I think you should show it more, friends don’t make you weak" he gives her a smile and the wooden knife "Okay, my turn"_

Why was she remembering all of this now? Was it because she knew it was coming to an end. They had an ambush set up for her. Even without going down the tunnel she was probably done for. Sure she’d put up her best fight but this was the end and she knew it.

"Annie, Why did you have Marco’s maneuver gear?" So Armin had noticed. Of course he had. Who would have known Marco’s act of kindness would be Annie’s downfall. In her trainee days she thought that frequently, but after he died she considered him a non threat. Except the pain that she normally could banish away without a thought.

_It was over, Annie thought, her gear was broken and no one was around. I’m going to die here, because of our own plan. she thought bitterly. She fiddled uselessly with the broken  part of her maneuver gear._

_"Annie!" she recognized the voice immediately, but it was slower, ragged. She turned her head to the left to see Marco propped up against a wall, skin pale and breathing shallow. His entire right shoulder and arm were missing, blood flowing freely from the wound he’s tried uselessly to staunch. His left hand covered in blood slowly started to unclasp the belts to his gear._

_"Marco" she knelt beside him. She had no right to mourn this, it was her fault after all. "Marco don’t we need to get you medical help" she could feel the awful restricting of her throat that signaled she was about to start crying._

_"It’s too late for me, Annie. Listen, ok? Take my maneuver gear" his hand was moving slowly, fingers fumbling over what he could normally remove with ease. Annie had started hyperventilating and suddenly the hand was wrapped around hers._

_"Annie, do you remember what the instructors would tell us when we got scared" she let out a choked noise sobs shaking her shoulders "Do you remember?" he asked more forcefully._

_"Ain’t no damn titans in heaven" he smiled before grimacing, so dying hurt she noted. It hurt and he was comforting her. "why are you always so nice to me?" Annie asks in a whisper something she’s been wanting to for the last three years._

_"I suppose I have nothing to loose now" he grunts arm twitching before composing himself, speaking slowly as breathing becomes harder and harder "I’m in love with you Annie"_

"I just, found it"


End file.
